Cameron’s safe, but he urgently needs a plan

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Being a good front man is fine, but it’s not enough if the behind-the-scenes thinking simply isn’t going on

If the Conservative Party was a patient on a GP’s couch the diagnosis would not be encouraging. A good doctor would conclude that the patient did not face any immediate, life-threatening problems but was fundamentally unhealthy. In medical terms, the party’s condition is not acute but chronic. It is not afflicted with appendicitis or pneumonia and is not going to keel over tomorrow. The ailment is more like a bad back or severe obesity. The party simply isn’t strong or fit enough to flourish. Without reform it does, in due course, risk a premature denouement.